Knarley Rowt!!!!
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2011
1
21
49
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Noble House Hotel
What I did
Rock Climbing
Wild Jungle Trekking!!
Cat Ba, Vietnam
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The boat ride was cool and a lot quicker than we thought! We arrived mid morning and checked into The Noble House hotel as recommended in the Lonely Planet, it was more expensive than we would have liked but everywhere was packed due to the Vietnamese holidays and because it was high season they charge more!! The room was nice enough but the service there was shocking!! The place was ran literally by a bunch of kids!! (Lord of the Flies vs Annie the Orphan!!!). Half the time they didn't even know we were staying there, they cooked the food which wasn't the best, and they 'misplaced' one of Neil's t-shirts when they did the laundry, luckily we got it back the next day but they didn't have a clue when we were asking!
We didn't do anything the day we arrived, slept, ate and drank! The next day we hired a bike and had a drive about the Island, The Lonely Planet said it looked like something out of Jurassic Park, this description was spot on! Was half expecting a massive Dinosaur to jump out in front of us as we were driving along! It was so pretty and green with loads of craggy looking cliff faces, was pretty spectacular!! In the afternoon we hit the beach, was fine to just lye and relax, was absolutely boiling!!! The sea was really nice, nice and warm :)
Our last day we had booked a Jungle trek and Rock climbing through the adventure company in the hotel we were staying, thankfully ran by an American dude and not the kids!! We got driven by bikes to Butterfly Valley where you begin the trek and where the cliff face for the rock climbing was. Neil and I were led by a Vietnamese guy into the jungle, both thinking a leisurely stroll was on the cards, man were we in for a surprise!! The boy had us climbing vertically up jagged rock faces and then descending down slippery slopes! Of course I fell and smashed my back off a rock, immediately making me cry! lol! It was SO enclosed, barely any sunlight! Spiders everywhere! Huge stick insects, centipedes, land crabs?? and every flying beastie you could think of!! safe to say I am no longer scared of insects!! Was well worth it when we reached the top, right above the trees and taking in the views :) I was glad once it was over and we were back on safe, flat land!
We then went back to the wee house we had come to in the morning and had lunch, home made Vietnamese cooking, so good!!
Once lunch was over we were then joined by Jack, our climbing instructor for the avo and his assistant Roo, he was a local boy and the best climber ever!! He made it look so easy!! It was SO hard, we both managed the 1st climb they set up for us, the 'easy' climb, the 2nd 'easy' climb wasn't so easy and neither of us managed! He gave us the option of easier ones but I insisted that I wanted hard ones with easier starts!! I must say I was rather impressed with our efforts on the 3rd one, both made it so high and over really hard parts of the cliff!! at least 35/40ft! Of course I went 1st and Neil's competitive streak was telling him that he needed to beat me so I think he was feeling a little queasy watching how high I was getting!! In the end he got higher! We were both shattered by the end!! We got driven back and got showered up and went for dinner with this cool couple we had met that day, they were proper climbers!! Had a good evening with them, hoping to maybe catch up with them again in the states when we get there as they should be in L.A by then!! We both slept very well that night!! And then woke the next day extremely sore!!!
